Only one week remains if we’re to reclaim our faith and, when the Risen Lord breathes his Spirit into us anew next Sunday—Pentecost Sunday—to be living a more authentic Catholic faith.
Today’s gospel reminds us about the Risen Lord praying for his disciples—for us—before ascending into Heaven:
As you sent me into the world,so I sent them into the world.And I consecrate myself for them,so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
Although each of us has been consecrated in truth by virtue of God having breathed His divine image and likeness into us in and from the beginning as well as renewing it in us when we were baptized and confirmed, it’s the unusual adult Catholic who’s vocal about that truth, if only for the reason Catholics historically have viewed their faith as a “private” affair—something between them and God.
“Evangelical preachers do that and maybe some priests or bishops, like Archbishop Fulton Sheen or Bishop Robert Barron. But, but not ordinary Catholics like me!”, these Catholics assert.
As a consequence, many important questions most adults have about the Catholic faith remain unanswered. Sure, there’s the Catechism of the Catholic Church—which they can easily access online and provides an excellent resource for learning about the Catholic faith. But, for many, the word “catechism” is somewhat foreboding. It calls to mind those halcyon days of yore when the content of the Catholic faith was drilled, if not beaten, into young Catholics or conveyed to them in a way that bored them to death until religion class or PREP class was over. But that was then, and this is now: Today, most Catholic children are uncatechized and know nothing of the faith except what they hear about it, much of which is negative and provides no reason for them to want to learn about the Catholic faith.
And that’s the problem: For most Catholics, that’s where learning the Catholic faith ended. Today, instead of having what Jesus called a “childlike” faith, they possess a “childish” faith.
Yet, these Catholics have questions about their faith. But, don’t raise these questions vocally or seek answers to them from knowledgeable co-religionists.
Why? The truth be told, these Catholics seem to know intuitively that once they ask the first question, a second is sure to arise, and so on…until they realize their self-assured childish faith provides absolutely no blessed assurance whatsoever. The “firm ground” upon which they’ve planted their feet by ignoring their faith formation ends up being nothing but sand. Not only do these Catholics know they will feel lost and their souls be numbed, but they also know they’ll feel embarrassed. Why? Someone other than themselves will know they don’t know one plumb nickel about what an adult Catholic surely ought to know and surely ought to be able to express with blessed assurance…that is, if one possesses a truly authentic, “childlike” faith.
Generally speaking, evangelical Christians don’t have those fears. They study the Bible and aren’t reticent to witness to their faith. For example:
- It’s not at all unusual for evangelicals to have Wednesday morning prayer breakfasts where they study the Bible and discuss its application to their workplace witness to their faith.
- Amish “sewing circles” emerged during the nineteenth century to provide Amish women a time to gather weekly, not primarily for the purpose of making beautiful quilts but, more substantively, for the purpose of studying the Bible and applying it to their roles as Christian wives and mothers.
In today’s gospel, the Risen Lord also told his disciples before ascending into Heaven, “I will not leave you orphans.”
That continues to be true in this generation:
- Pope Francis teaches Catholics at least three times each week, all of which is readily available online.
- The Archdiocese sponsors “CatholicPhillyonline.com,” providing all sorts of information each week for adult Catholics to nourish their faith and, again, is readily available online.
- Locally, our parish is blessed to have a resident pastor. Yet, how many parishioners have lined up at the rectory’s front door during the twenty-three years I’ve been assisting on the weekends here and protested—like today’s social justice “warriors”—that Father Kelly, Monsignor Golias, or Father Wild provide them the faith formation they know they need?
I don’t need to tell you the answer to that question, do I? Most of you very well know the answer.
It’s also true that when our pastors have attempted to address the need and made very good-faith efforts (pardon the pun) to provide for adult faith formation and in a variety of ways, how many parishioners have shown up to nourish and, hopefully, strengthen their faith?
I don’t need to tell you the answer to that question either, do I? Most of you know the answer to that question also.
Even our senior citizens who have lots of time on their hands to attend to important matters like their faith now that they’re no longer tied down 24/7/365 attending to the needs of their families don’t avail themselves of adult faith formation.
What has transpired here in our parish is similar to what has transpired at parishes across the Archdiocese and the nation, if not the globe.
It sure would be nice, wouldn’t it, if the Catholic faith could be reduced to “sound bites” that can be consumed like a bag of M&M’s. Yet, both you and I know and, as Forrest Gump observed, “life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get.” Well, M&M’s are chocolates…and, as Jesus taught, “Man does not live on M&M’s alone…but on every word that comes forth from God” (Matthew 4:4).
Yet, those questions characterizing a “childlike” faith don’t disappear, sometimes arising seemingly out of nowhere. It can happen while driving the car, watching the news on TV, at Sunday Mass, or when a child asks an Art Linletter-esque “Kids say the darndest things” kind of question.
For most adult Catholics, those questions arise most frequently when tragedy strikes when they’re compelled ask, as Job did: “Why did God do this to me?” or “Why did God allow this to happen to me?”
Those questions don’t arise out of nothing or from nowhere. No, for Catholics who possess an authentic, childlike faith, they know it’s the Holy Spirit stirring within, challenging them—as adult Catholics—to leave behind any remnant of an inauthentic, childish faith and to continue their journey to develop a more authentic, childlike faith.
So, why are adult Catholics so darn reluctant even to ask questions and discuss their faith with others? Probably for one reason: They’re afraid of the next question and exposing their childish faith.
But, here’s the real problem: Those people are our spouses, children, relatives, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. They’re yearning for answers yet are fearful of exposing their ignorance!
To reiterate: In today’s gospel Jesus taught his disciples “I will not leave you orphans.”
It’s to those people God sends us each and every day to consecrate them in the truth!
That represents our challenge from Scripture this seventh and final week of Easter as we prepare for the Holy Spirit to descend anew upon us in seven days—Pentecost Sunday: To dispel any fear we might experience to proclaim boldly our Catholic faith so that each and every one of us, living a more authentic, childlike faith will be prepared to assist all of those who would otherwise be left orphans to answer their questions.
The way each of us can do that this week is to seek the answer to the first question you may have or someone may have asked you that you couldn’t answer adequately. It could concern doctrine, liturgy, morality, prayer, scripture, sexuality, fear about going to Confession, divorce and family breakups, Church history, the impacts upon us and others around us when we use foul language, being addicted to technologies, and the terrible evils presented by the Internet to people of faith, to name just a few.
Just one question and seek only one answer until you find THE answer which will enable you to say, as St. John said in today’s Epistle: “I have come to know and to believe in the love God has for me.”
In today’s gospel, the Risen Lord prayed for you and me:
As you sent me into the world,so I sent them into the world.And I consecrate myself for them,so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
To live the truth in which we have already been consecrated truth, we first need to know what that truth is, as God has revealed it in Scripture and Church teaching. Only then, armed with a childlike faith, will we be able to consecrate others in truth.
The Holy Spirit never allows a baptized and confirmed Catholic to be an orphan who’s been left behind on the side of the road, hoping some Good Samaritan will show up. The truth is that the Holy Spirit has called each of us to be that Good Samaritan...this week.
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